Conventionally, floating connectors are well known. For example, as a floating connector for use in interconnection of two circuit boards.
The floating connector 101, shown in FIG. 13, is provided with multiple metal contacts 110, a movable housing 120, and a fixed housing 130.
Each contact 110 is provided with a contact portion 111, a board connecting portion 112, and a flexible coupling portion 113. The contact portion 111 is configured to be in contact with a mating contact provided at a mating connector (not shown). The board connecting portion 112 is configured to be connected to a circuit board (not shown). The flexible coupling portion 113 connects the contact portion 111 and the board connecting portion 112.
Specifically, in the floating connector 101, the contact portion 111 of each contact 110 is received in and secured to each contact receiving passageway 121 of the movable housing 120, and in addition, the board connecting portion 112 of each contact 110 is secured to the fixed housing 130. Thus, the movable housing 120 is coupled to the fixed housing 130 through the flexible coupling portion 113 of the contact 110, so the movable housing 120 is stacked above the fixed housing 130 with spaced apart from the fixed housing 130 by a distance X.
In addition, according to the floating connector 101, when a mating connector is mated, the movable housing 120 moves in vertical and horizontal directions with respect to the fixed housing 130, thereby allowing a positional misalignment between the mating contact and the contact 110. Further, even if an object or the like hits the movable housing 120 and a strong impact is applied to the movable housing 120, the flexible coupling portion 113 of the contact 110 will absorb the impact and the impact will be attenuated. It is therefore possible to prevent fault at a solder connecting part of the board connecting portion 112.
It should be noted that, however, each contact 110 of the floating connector 101 includes the flexible coupling portion 113 that is formed by winding a metallic member. Accordingly, the conductor serving as a signal path is made longer and its self-impedance is made greater. Consequently, in each contact 110, the impedance of the flexible coupling portion 113 is greater than those of other portions, thereby causing an impedance mismatch in the signal path. Then, if the impedance mismatch is caused in the signal path of each contact 110, this will result in unnecessary signal reflections.
Accordingly, the known floating connector 101 has a problem in that electrical signals, flowing across each contact 110, are unstable. Such a problem becomes noticeable, in particular, when high-frequency electrical signals (for example, 1.5-3 GHz) are flow across each contact 110. In this case, the self-impedance generated at each contact 110, due to the provision of the flexible coupling portion 113, can be cancelled by arranging around each contact 110 a material with a dielectric constant greater than that of air so as to make the capacitor greater.
Conventionally, there has been known connectors, like the connector shown in FIG. 14, which is a connector for impedance matching in the entire contact.
The impedance matching connector 201, shown in FIG. 14, is provided with multiple signal terminals 210, multiple ground terminals 211, a connector main body 220, and a spacer 230 to be attached to the connector main body 220.
Each of the terminals 210 and 211 is provided with a contact portion 212 to be in contact with a mating contact provided at a mating connector (not shown), a board connecting portion 213 to be connected to a circuit board (not shown), and a lead portion 214 to couple the contact portion 212 and the board connecting portion 213.
The spacer 230 is made of a dielectric material and is formed to have a comb teeth shape.
Specifically, in the impedance matching connector 201, the contact portion 212 of each of the terminals 210 and 211 is received in and secured to each contact receiving passageway 221 of the connector main body 220. Additionally, the spacer 230 having a comb teeth shape is interposed between the lead portion 214 of each signal terminal 210 and the lead portion 214 of each ground terminal 211 extended from the connector main body 220.
The impedance matching connector 201 is configured such that the contact portion 212 of each of the terminals 210 and 211 is received in each contact receiving passageway 221 of the connector main body 220, and in addition, the spacer 230 is disposed with the lead portion 214 of each of the terminals 210 and 211 extended from the connector main body 220. Accordingly, almost the entire surface of each of the terminals 210 and 211 is surrounded by a dielectric material. This allows the impedance matching between the impedance of the contact portion 212 and that of the lead portion 214 in each of the terminals 210 and 211, thereby allowing the impedance matching in the entire of each of the terminals 210 and 211.
In order to match the impedances in the entire contact, it is desirable that a dielectric material should surround the entire contact extended from the housing, as in the impedance matching connector 201 shown in FIG. 14.
It should be noted that, however, the floating connector 101 shown in FIG. 13 has a certain configuration where the movable housing 120 moves in vertical and horizontal directions with respect to the fixed housing 130, since the flexible coupling portion 113 in each contact 110 is capable of flexible deformation. Therefore, if the floating connector 101 has a configuration where the entire of the flexible coupling portion 113 of each contact 110 is surrounded by a dielectric material, such a configuration will cause a problem of blocking the movement of the movable housing 120.